Knight Terrors: Superman #2 // Review
Kara’s in a dream. She recognizes it instantly. Well...almost immediately. Her dad has taken her out to the middle of nowhere to celebrate her taking an exam, but there’s no way that she could fly on Krypton. So clearly, it’s a nightmare. She’s being attacked by a swarm of zombies dressed like various incarnations of herself. She’s Supergirl and will go looking for her cousin in Knight Terrors: Superman #2. Writer Joshua Williamson concludes Clark’s adventures in nightmare with artist Tom Reilly and colorist Nathan Fairbairn. The experience may be beyond the realm of dreams, but it’s got the grit and power that doesn’t always make it into a Superman story.
Kara runs into Clark immediately in low orbit, pursued by an army of zombie Supergirls. Oddly enough, it’s the sort of thing they have dealt with quite a bit over the years. Meanwhile, Clark’s body in the waking world is in good hands. It’s being looked after by Aquaman and Mera. They will have a hell of a time protecting it against one of Insomnia’s most potent underlings. Kara’s sleeping body is another matter altogether. She’s knocked out at an office in the Daily Planet...
Williamson ushers a couple of powerful Kryptonians through their greatest fears. It’s pretty straightforward stuff. Supergirl has been through so many different lives that it only makes sense that she would have to deal with many different versions of herself. Superman’s greatest fear? Dying and not being able to protect others. The manifestations of this aren’t exactly elegant. A Super Grim Reaper seems silly enough to have come out of a Silver Age issue of Superman, but Williamson gives it the right weight to make it feel heavy.
Superman goes almost the entire nightmare portion of the issue without a cape or a costume. Reilly gives him enough power to look like Superman, even out of costume. Kara strikes all the correct heroic poses as well. Fairbairn does a lot of the work of delivering the moodier end of the horror atmosphere to the page with shadows and the eldritch light of the nightmare magic that Superman and Supergirl are up against. There are a few striking moments of serious action that rumble across the page under the power of Reilly’s art, which also manages to make quite an impression in more physically still dramatic moments.
The Knight Terrors crossover event has featured a lot of excellent writing. Williamson puts a solid end to a promising exploration into the darker realm of Superman’s dreams. It’s not nearly as impressive and intricate as it could have been...and given all of the weird, little mutations of the nightmare that other writers have put other heroes through throughout the summer, it’s excellent to see a more straight-ahead interpretation of the premise.
